Lost for many in the avalanche of news about the midterms, voters in five states went to the polls last month to vote on proposals allowing adult-use cannabis, often referred to as recreational cannabis. We won't bury the lede: two states, Maryland and Missouri, voted to allow adult-use cannabis, while three others — Arkansas and the Dakotas — voted down the proposals ...
January 10, 2023 By: Michael Flynn The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget has released the Fall 2022 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Agenda) reports on the actions administrative agencies plan to issue in the near and long term. Included is the CFPB’s regulatory agenda for 2023. The CFPB agenda may be found HERE ...
In Ultima Services Corporation v. U.S. Department of Agriculture et al., Case No. 2:20-CV-00041, Ultima Services Corporation filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee (Greenville Division) challenging the constitutionality of the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program ...
In 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14026 to increase the minimum wage for federal government contractors to $15 per hour. On November 23, 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued its final rule implementing Executive Order 14026. The rule requires any federal contractor to pay employees a minimum hourly wage of $15 and overtime wages for work beyond 40 hours per week. This wage is subject to yearly increases determined by DOL ...
Dionex Softron GmbH v. Agilent Techs., Inc., Appeal No. 21-2372 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 6, 2023) This week’s Case of the Week, the only precedential patent opinion issued by the Federal Circuit this week, focused primarily on the corroboration requirement for relevant dates of invention. The Court held there was sufficient evidence of a reduction to practice as of a given date, based primarily on corroboration of multiple witnesses, notwithstanding limited documentary evidence ...
On July 9, 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order requesting that agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), issue rules banning employers from entering non-compete agreements with employees. Following that request, on January 5, 2023, the FTC announced it is proposing sweeping new regulations that would bar employers from entering into or enforcing non-compete agreements with employees that prevent an employee from working with a competitor ...
The recent judgment issued by the Supreme Court of Bermuda in the case of In the Matter of the AB Settlement [2022] SC (Bda) 92 Civ provides very helpful authority on the question of whether trust restructurings under Bermuda statute constitute resettlements. The case concerned a substantial English law trust, referred to in the judgment as the AB Settlement ...
We summarize here what we believe are the top 5 Alabama tax cases decided in the past year that would interest our CPA readers. Not surprisingly, almost all are Alabama Tax Tribunal rulings, so in those instances we deleted that reference and simply list the date of the latest ruling. If you’d like a copy of or have a question about any of these rulings, please email one of us ...
On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) published a notice of a proposed rulemaking that would prohibit employers from enforcing non-compete agreements against all employees and would preempt state laws that otherwise allow these agreements. The proposed rule would prohibit any contractual term that functions to prevent a worker from seeking or accepting employment or operating a business, after leaving the employer ...
Part 1: Four reasons to slow down and four reasons to speed up the process Part 2: Slowing down the process (CA, US, EP, PCT) Part 3: Fast track (CA, US, EP, PCT) Part 1: Why slow down or speed up the process? Slowing down the process Why would anyone want to slow down the process when it already usually takes several years for a patent to be issued? Cash flow Uncertainty for competitors Possibility of changing the scope Possibility of filing a divisional application In some cases,
Whether a court must defer to an administrative agency’s interpretation of a statute has recently become a hot-button topic in a wide variety of legal circles ranging from political campaigns to cases heard before the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of Ohio has now joined with its recent decision in TWISM Ents., L.L.C. v. State Bd ...
On December 22, 2022 the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (“Pennsylvania DHS”) issued a Medical Assistance Bulletin that will put 340B savings at risk in Pennsylvania. This bulletin intends to prohibit 340B Program covered entities and contract pharmacies from dispensing 340B medication to Pennsylvania Medicaid patients regardless of whether the patient is enrolled in fee-for-service or managed Medicaid ...
On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a proposed rule[1] to prohibit employers from enforcing non-compete agreements against former employees, contractors, and other workers. The proposed rule defines “non-compete clause” broadly as “a contractual term between an employer and a worker that prevents the worker from seeking or accepting employment with a person, or operating a business, after the conclusion of the worker’s employment ...
If your organization operates or could be sued in New York, there has been recent activity on the legal and regulatory risk landscape that risk professionals should be prepared for. New York’s newly-enacted Comprehensive Insurance Disclosure Requirements legislation opens the door for defendants to request that organizations disclose the details of their commercial insurance programs that may apply to a judgment in the case ...
On December 9, 2022, the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued a General Legal Advice Memorandum (“Memorandum”) challenging the 1994 Tax Court decision inChilds v. Commissioner, 103 T.C. 634 (1994),aff’d without published opinion, 89 F.3d 856 (11thCir. 1996) (“Childs”) ...
Significant False Claims Act (FCA) developments in the courts during the latter part of 2022 have included the Supreme Court’s declining to take up one issue involving FCA qui tam actions (what level of pleading particularity Rule 9(b) requires) while holding argument on another (the scope of the government’s dismissal power following declination), and the D.C. Circuit’s adoption of the pro tanto rule in computing settlement offsets in multiple-defendant cases ...
Dinsmore partner Faith Whittaker and associate Jared Phalen were published in Bank Director with their article "New Law Ends Pre-Dispute NDAs for Workplace Sexual Harassment, Assault Disputes." An excerpt is below. On Nov. 16, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives sent the Speak Out Act to President Joe Biden’s desk with a 315-109 vote. The legislation, which cleared the Senate unanimously on Sept ...
A lesser-known state incentive in the nonprofit sector has created a boon for taxpayers, private education institutions and their students. Across the country, states are providing tax credits that reduce individuals’ state income taxes for any donation to a state-certified nonprofit organization providing scholarships to K-12 students to attend private schools ...
Mosaic Brands, Inc. v. Ridge Wallet LLC, Appeal Nos. 2022-1001, -1002 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 20, 2022) In our Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit discussed the corroboration requirement concerning the amount of evidence needed to successfully invalidate a patent as anticipated. Mosaic claimed that Ridge infringed Mosaic’s patent and trade dress for a money-clip wallet. Ridge countered that Mosaic infringed Ridge’s own patent for a money-clip wallet ...
